Funeral Train at Lake Michigan

One of the best accounts of the Chicago-to-Springfield journey comes from Chicago & Alton brakeman William S. Porter, who was part of conductor George Hewitt’s crew. “As I remember the funeral train,” Porter wrote in 1917, “it consisted of one baggage car, several ordinary coaches and the catafalque car (the one carrying Lincoln’s body), which was the second car from the rear end of the train.”